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2014.05.05 - Ghosts from the Past: Research Facility
The information retrieved from the Sidewinder database revealed that their Ural facility lies on the European side of the range. Good thing too; it's still Russia, but the western side is much easier to access with fewer problems. Of course, SHIELD has a few favours they can call in to smooth things over. As per usual Maria has sent the team out in a Quinjet. this one, outfitted for stealth. Just in case Sidewinder had developed something that could attack the Quinjet in motion. It has yet to happen, but Maria isn't about to risk it. “Long story short,” Hill's voice comes over the comms. “SHIELD hasn't been able to find plans for this facility anywhere. Stark hasn't been able to find anything either. I doubt the information exists outside of this place. So keep your eyes open. Based on the information we do have, this is very likely their weapons manufacturing plant. The Urals are mineral rich, so they'd have a lot of what they'd need, if Stark's report on the weapons we recovered is accurate. “The rest of the information indicates this is where they've been training the troops that assaulted our teams on the initial op and where they've been building and experimenting with power armour. I want this facility destroyed, but not before we get samples of this technology secured. Stuff like this could be used to destabilize a region quickly, depending on to whom it is sold. And if that's already happened, I want this stuff analyzed to death so we know how to put a stop to it.” When the Quinjet lands, it does so just on the other side of a peak. It'll force the occupants to walk/fly/etc to the facility, but it'll also keep the vehicle safe. Hopefully. On the other side of the peak is a dirt road between it and the other peak whose shadow the facility is built within. The weapons factory is surrounded by a chain link fence, with a dit road leading right up the centre. What little of the facility is within sight seems awfully small, but the reason becomes clue on a good looking over: the rest of the facility is built directly into the side of the mountain itself. Predictably, there are guard towers every 300 feet along the chainlink fence, and a booth in front of the gate to open and close it supply runs. Periodically, guards – whether on foot or in the power armour seen used at the other facilities – stomp into view. “Understood?” Captain America sits in the back of the quinjet looking at topographical maps of the region the entire flight. His usually bright blue armor is given a once over with a dusky grey to add a bit more subtly to the lines and there's an M1911 hanging on a hip holster, otherwise he's sitting with blonde hair free until about a mile out. Right about the time the mission briefing begins he stands up, slides the cowl up over his face, and slips his shield onto his back. As he passes he offers each of the agents a grin, clapping Carol and Clint on the shoulders and standing in front of the hatch with his head bent forward.. probably praying. "Understood." He breaths into his throat mic and hops down onto the hard graveled peak, breaking off into a dead run. "Agent Kavanaugh, you're rank, what's the game plan?" Staring down at the complex through a small set of binoculars. Once again, Carol won't be in an aircraft if she's not flying it... or at least that's her attitude. Plus, when she's lost her powers she really felt that the only thing she had left to be really useful was her pilot skill and experience. Sure, it's irrational, but it's how she feels. "So, do we actually have legitimate authority for this raid?" She asks over the comms. "Are we able to flash ID's if needed? Or is this a black bag op?" she asks as she lands the jet, leaving the copilot (and official pilot) to man the plane while she departs. Yet again, she has her needle rifle, and a plasma sidearm for oomf. Also, her needle rifle has an M203 attached to the rail under the barrel of the needle rifle, and a bandolier of 40mm grenades. She wants to be prepared in case she runs into more of that bulky power armor. Of course, she has a wrap about her torso for those sore ribs that are healing not as fast as she is used to. Her blonde hair is tied up and back, tucked up into the standard issue black (backwards) ball cap she has on to top off the lightly armored SHIELD bodysuit. Yeah, she might be a bit overgunned but hey... better to have and not need, than need and not have. "Comms check." she says into her mic as she steps off the jet, weapon's reflex (and UV laser sight) sweeping the area just outside. It's a good thing that reflex sight can also pick up UV light. Not unlike the good Captain, Agent Yamaguchi sits quietly throughout the flight, going over maps and photographs of the installation in detail. She is wearing a darksuit, and fully masked, which is a tad unusual for SHIELD personnel. She has SHIELD-issued harness on, with weapons and other gear. But frankly, she looks like a ninja. Then again, to those who know her, she deserves to look like a ninja: she is one. Once the briefing is over, she stands up, positioning herself to Captain Rogers' left flank one step behind, and waits for the hatch to open. As soon as it does, she leaps out and sprints into the night, vanishing. She's a ninja. That's what they do: vanish. "Comms check, aye. Yamaguchi reporting. Two teams spotted east-north-east of the facility along main approach. One has two powered armor units." That report comes out after a minute or so, when Carol calls for a check. Ninja, being sneaky. Go figure. Ahhhh. Russia. Now this place spoke Martin's lanaguage. One of them, at least. He pays attention during the briefing that's given. He's got a large amount of equipment strapped to him, from grenades, to clips with various colors of tape stripped over them, and a few extra electronic gizmos whipped up in the Lab. He finishes checking the assault rifle slung in front of him, ensuring a round is chambered, before pulling a balaclava over his face just before the Quinjet lands. "Well, I'm glad it's nothing too hard we'll have to do without air support." He notes, before pausing. "Excluding any of you that can fly. Which might be a goddamn majority." A quick adjustment of a device at his neck, before he attempts subvocalization. <> After the Quinjet lands, that does mean those that can fly would probably get there before Martin manages to haul his middle-aged body up to the hill itself, hitting the dirt quickly, before reaching into his gear to bring out his own set of optical aids. "Well..." He says, sweeping over the facility. "They've got good security here. Towers every hundred yards, and they're probably hunting for us with better stuff then we're looking for at them. I'd doubt they'd open up for the national military, so slapping on a few tricolor flags and screaming at them in Russian's probably not going to do it. A view up to one of the towers. "I don't think they were expecting metahuman infiltrators, though. I need someone to get into that tower, there... " He points toward one on the left. "...Without being detected, and see what sort of monitoring systems they have. The rest go in at the chain link right below the tower once it's cleared. I doubt the rovers are going to check that zone regularly. Clear?" Hawkeye is a chatter box on the flight talking even if no one talks back at least until they are about an hour out then he goes silent as well. Clint Barton nods to Cap as he is clapped on the shoulder. He is in his barker more stealthy outfit as opposed to the bright purple one he tends to wear on Avengers missions. As the quin jet touches down he checks his gear making sure the arrows are in the order he expects them to be and then he checks the rest of things making sure everything is ready for go time. He nods his understanding of the instructions from over the comms. He heads out of the quinjet after Carol looking over the area for anything out of the ordinary. <> He then asks a quick question, "Any known weak spot on the armor?" Agent Brand checked over her gear through the lenses of her green tinted glasses as Maria Hill gave the briefing. Black SHIELD armored body suit but with green accents, check. Green hair in pony tail, check. Set of Plasma pistols, check. Back up energy rifle. check. Explosives and detonators, Check. She had checked the little intel they had last night and had pretty much concluded everything that Hill had said. She liked to get on Maria's case from time to time, but she was good. "I've got enough explosives on me to make sure its good and gone when we're done with the place," she said in regards to Maria Hills order to destroy the facility. It was high-tech stuff, looked and acted like C4 but with four times the strength. A little of it went a long way. She looked at Carol and touched her own ear piece, "Check." loading her gear up herself. And then adjusted it to subvocal and said <> "By the way, I don't feel like dying today so no heroics. I shoot the first person not named Captain America who tries to be a hero," she couldn't possibly be serious about that... could she? Ms. Marvel sits close to the cockpit, casual in these jets now and relaxed for the trip. She listens to the AD give instructions, nodding comfortably. Like others on the team, she passes the time in transit, deep in study, reading the latest materials, Glamour, Elle, and Vogue. When she rises she takes a compact she brought along to check the tussled look of her golden hair before turning towards the door. The compact is tossed on the magazines after testing and she walks towards the plank. Karla frowns though when Steve defers to Kavanaugh. She touches the device at her ear, "Check, Marvel." She waits for Carol to start to disembark and walks with her as they start towards the base. "I thought you'd be senior?" She says curiously, but shift her shoulders. For now she just stays to the back following Carol's lead. “They're targeting SHIELD agents,” Maria is quick to return to the comm and remind Carol. “Regardless of the truth of the data Stark pulled from the database or the reports we received to put us on their trail... they're painting targets on SHIELD and trying to pull the trigger. You don't get to complain that the NYPD is after you when you make a point of trying to kill a cop.” In other words, the op is aboveboard and on the books. It's not hard to get the pattern down for how the guards move, as Katsuko would be the first to see. One comes in from the north, moves across the main compound to the west, where he crosses paths with his associate going in the opposite direction. Then he moves back to the north. Exactly two minutes and thirty-three seconds later, one of the guards decked out in power armour stomps across the same area. It's big and bulky, and very obviously one of their first attempts at replicating Iron Man's armour. Carol's favourite Sidewinder Tech goon. She's seen them up close and personal by now, but these ones... these are bigger. Not quite as 'prototype' as the ones she's seen before. They're also very slow. Unlike the guards, it takes the armour another 3 minutes to do what they did in thirty seconds. For the tower indicated by Martin, there only seems to be one man in it. He stands at each cardinal direction for thirty seconds, before moving to the next. A walky-talky is on his hip, echoing with the voices of other guards confirming everything is still clear. <> Cap says into his throat mic, depressing the switch with two fingers, <> Seconding the ninja's observation. The binoculars are stowed and Rogers breaks off in a dead run, <> Putting a name to the assignment, Rogers loops wide, cutting through the trees easily. Periodically he leaps against a trunk and uses it to change his momentum in another direction, literally devouring up distance at about thirty an hour in dense canopy. It's a scientific sort of approach ont he booth, changing directions and approach vectors at random, at least until he's close enough to actually see in which direction the man in it is looking... not to mention where the patrols are at the moment of attack. Which is right after the three minute pass of one of those bulky power armors. Steve rushes out from the east side of the booth, leaning every bit of his weight into the side armed throw of his shield. He never stops running, the disk hits the glass and shatters it, and Steve jumps grabs the roof of the booth and swings in easily smashing the man's head against the soldi back wall. His shield is retrieved then the man's radio is picked up and plugged into the single piece of 'tech' Captain America carries: it patches them into the comm chatter from the enemy. "Stealth would be my job. Report back in ninety." Agent Yamaguchi radios back through the encrypted subvocal mics. Then she scampers ahead, keeping close cover. When she gets close enough, she breaks into a full-tilt run when none of those guards are looking, and then leaps. One moment she's at ground level, and the next she's sailing through the air to land on the walkway of the tower. Of course, Katsuko's landing draws the attention of the guy operating inside that tower, as there's no way to do that and not make a little bit of vibration. But she crouches low, out of sight, and makes her way around to the door, waiting for him to check. When he does, she hops up, clamps one hand over his mouth and wraps her arm around his throat, pulling him down and silencing his protests as she cuts off the bloodflow to his brain for a five-count, until he passes out. Then she releases him, flips him over, zip-ties his ankles and wrists, then zipties them together, and gags him with his own socks. "Yamaguchi, in. Checking surveillance. Connecting encrypted datalink ... now." And somewhere, a SHIELD computer tech just got access to everything going on in this tower, and everywhere the systems in this tower are connected to. Then she snaps several quick infrared shots of the tech and sends them along for analysis. Shaking her head, Carol declines to respond verbally to Karla. She's all business once the op begins. She's watching the folks ahead of her for nonverbal cues. Things like hand signals and the like. She disables the UV laser sight for now... just a simple switch actually, in case the armored guys have UV sensors. She is low-walking behind cover and behind Cap and likely Martin. Her head is 'on a swivel' though, her eyes flickering to and fro to watch the flanks. She's trusting the folks on point to watch the front. She has noticed the armor suits but didn't bring it up. It wasn't like nobody else saw them. So she plays the good soldier, giving cover angles and such as everyone moves. It's exhilarating actually, being part of a unit that feels truly elite... for the first time in quite some time. Well, a military style unit, not the Avengers.. you know. Martin looks quickly over to Brand. "That's not really the best thing to threaten someone about to do something foolishly heroic. Just promise to knock their ass out and leave them out of the report-" He says, before Captain America rushes out and vaults forward at an incredible speed, before smashing into the check in booth. "I'm glad you left the little exception though, because apparently the Captain fucking needs it. This is why I'm ranking." He notes over to Karla. "Because I'm always going to be in the back, so no one's going to kill me. That and if we're measure dicks, I've got two paygrades on him." And as Katsuko leaps up to the tower itself to disable it, he's down over the peek, rushing forward as fast as he can toward the fence, avoiding the rotation of any spotlight (estimated in the case of infrareds) and quickly skids to a halt in front of the fence. A rip of velcro, and a device is pulled out from a pocket. "Come on... all right, good." A click of his mic. <>. And with that, a pair of wire cutters come out, quickly clipping through the chain link, before pulling it aside and sliding in. <> Agent Barton responds to the instructions, <> He watches the next patrol cycle then makes his move slipping into the compound before the next patrol arrives. <> He then goes to the tallest building and shoot one of his grappling hook arrow up onto the roof to catch hold and he climbs up there hoping the vantage point will give him clear fields of fire. Brand is all business when the op is officially a go. The snarky attitude she had going on changed to a serious mood. <> She holds back from entering for now though and switches her sunglasses to thermal imaging to scan for any other potential problems that the recon unit didn't catch. She didn't really like the looks of this, it could get ugly real quick. Just like that job she pulled in . Karla follows Captain America with precision, eyes tracking left, then right, and left again. Oh, she walks basically forward herself, but she does like to watch the maneuvering and jumping. She keeps clear of getting in the way and stays back at a safe distance. It is all somewhat interesting to her all these tactical rushes and darts and dives, but she remains casual and pulls last position as the soldiers do their things. When Martin at least explains things to her, Karla seems to look at the man more intently, and even down on him once as if curious about him knowing something from the showers. When the group starts to move through the fence ahead of her though, Sofen does crouch down a bit more and make a quick step towards the cut hole. No low crawls, no stop drop and rolls, no dive for home plate just a stooped quick step. She pauses to make a note of where the mines are laid when Brand announces the intention. Then on to keep up with the insertion team. This is kind of cool. Between Katsuko and Barton, the two have an excellent view of the facility that remains free of the mountain's embrace. They've both got clear lines of sight to the other towers, the occupants of which haven't see the ninja nor the archer. Yet. But given each of the other four men use the same route (all moving at slightly different speeds), it's hard to predict when one of them will move around to see that there is someone standing on the roof. Or notice that one of their number isn't rounding the corner of the now-empty-but-for-ninja guard tower. And true to Martin's words, when he clips the chainlink fence apart, no alarm or alert goes off, either audibly or on the computer panel Katsuko patched SHIELD techs into. Clint in particular has an excellent view of the facility as it backs into the mountain, including the large steel door that keeps the outside locked off from the inside. Considering how good his eyesight is, he may just be able to see the access panel. The specifics for how to use it, though, are probably too indistinct from that distance. “Confirmation. We have access to the facility's database. Commencing download.” Not Maria's voice, but rather, Agent Hartnell, who was patched in. (( Did you hear that? )) Clint is lucky enough that the guards completely miss him going by, though the sound of the grappling arrow retracting the line it's attached to does seem to have been heard. (( Hear what? )) (( Thought I heard... nah. I don't see nuthin'. Must be hearing things. I hate working out here. Too damned quiet. My ears are making up shit that's not here. )) American, judging by their accents. Definitely not the Czech soldiers that SHIELD dealt with when they first started to deal with Sidewinder. (( Keep the line free for check-ins, idiots! )) Another voice, another American accent. The guards move on and the power armour comes out, this time with a second, smaller power armour companion. This one looks a lot more like the ones Carol has seen before, though the helmet is lit up from the inside, revealing that this one does indeed have a pilot. Steve does a quick job of getting glass out of ready view, but anyone pulling up is still going to be treated to an empty booth so he doesn't go nuts with it. Instead he swings out the way he came in, plants a foot on the glass frame and flips up ontop of the booth, then over the chain link fence where he lands in a crouch and breaks for the base of one of the towers so that he has partial cover from the others and a bit of shade from patrols. Particularly those powered suits. His shield is held along his right arm, head turned to one side so as to keep tabs on the movement of guards and those of the team. He's no techie and he certainly wasn't brought along for his elite hacking skills. Rather, he's judging distances from the fence to the doors, estimated time to hack and get inside, and the small gap between guard rotations. <> Which is pretty much like, 'That would be me.' Power armor. He hefts his shield and sets his expression into a grim line. His eyes slip across joint spaces between the knees, they're slow, probably pack a lot of firepower... He steps out of the shade with his right foot, pivots around it and hurls his shield with a grunt. The Vibranium projectile hits the ground and rebounds up at an angle, stabbing right into the little space between the armors left leg. Steve is already running, jumping, landing on the shield, and bouncing off it like a spring board with his foot snapping around at the armored skull of the smaller companion. This is like Captain America's version of Leroy Jenkins. 'Steeeeveeeeeeeee Roooooooogers' Ironically, the words 'we need a distraction' resonated in Carol's head the same way they did in Steve's. She thinks to herself . . o o O O (That would be me.) She takes aim at one of the power armor suits with her M203 and then Cap does his 'thang' and Carol grins a bit sheepishly, thinking . . o o O O (Right. Cap's here. Forgot.) But... she says subvocally. <> And she waits just a moment... making sure of her aim before she pulls the trigger on the M203. It sounds like a cough, not a rifle... which of course, it's -not- a rifle. The grenade sails through the air and hits a suit of power armor dead center as it comes around the corner preparing to -try- to engage the super soldier it couldn't -hope- to beat... and the explosive package in the grenade, not a normal one, but one based on the plasma pistols... goes off. A Plasma charge firing into the armor... it is a damnably effective armor piercing round, and leaves a 3 foot hole through the suit and out the back. Carol, for her part, is already taking cover when the round hits, having rolled there to try to avoid return fire. But she is also hoping that the Red White and Blue Avenger is a far more tempting target than she is. The team is still going for stealth, and that's Katsuko's specialty. The SHIELD ninja slips from the booth after setting a small charge on the device she attached to the computers to make sure that it can never be identified. She'll blow it when the remote SHIELD hacker says he has everything they need. Then she slips out of the tower's guard shack booth and slips around, swiftly and stealthfully neutralizing the unarmored guards, one at a time. <> Distraction, yay! Hopefully stealth can still be maintained overall. But maybe not. <> He starts, before Steve leaps out, and throws the shield into a power armor's knee. He watches, incredulously, before just sighing, and standing up from his hiding spot. <> Wide spectrum jamming wasn't something he had prepared for going in, so that was a lesson he'd have to carry on to the next mission. But that sort of radio discipline meant that these weren't the finest special forces. Which gave them a few seconds. As Carol launches a grenade toward the other suit of power armor, and Katsuko takes out one patroll, Martin stands up and quickly heads toward the panel, weapon up, but not engaging. <> When he reaches the control panel, he's back to his gear, pulling out a small device and affixing it to the front of the panel itself, tapping a few icons on the touch screen and waiting for the results. Hopefully it wouldn't require any sort of sequence, and just an explosion. <<"I see an access panel, on the door to the inner compound.">> He moves towards it to try and get a better look, at the start of the distraction he he starts to head to the pannel but that changes as he gets Martin's orders. he replies to Martin as he nocks an arrow. < I have the door sighted in.> He kneels at the edge of the roof closest to the targets zone and awaits targets. <> Brand said over the subvocal. <> And with that Brand booked it to the hatch. But was still smart about it. Taking cover when she could and keeping as out of sight as she could in a rushed situation like this. This was the problem with 'super hero' people hanging about. They always want to do it the FUCKING hard way! Perfect stealth mission ruined because Captain America wanted to throw his mighty shield. He could polish it for the rest of this mission as far as she was concerned. Bet you all thought it would be Karla that would spoil all the stealth fun, huh? Blond brows arch high over wide blue eyes when Steve decide to make this a frontal assault. She drops to a 'stripper boot' covered knee and faces the power armored group Steve and Carol chose to take out. She watches the larger power armor and raises her hand in front of her, finger pointed at it, and thumb lifted skyward in the traditional gun hand gesture. Ms. Marvel makes no rush, she waits for it to turn enough to give her a back shot angle. Then the thin tight beam of golden light fires from the finger, the consentrated force of the gravametric partical beam ripping a hole into the battery pack of the large mech, at that level of intensity, perhaps straight on through, but that would depend on the armor. Then she lauches herself forward, flying with a rapid at accelaration straight towards the metal door never getting higher than four foot off the ground to land close to Martin. “Acknowledged, Agent Kavanaugh. Looks like they have cameras on the outside monitored from the inside.” And the reverse is also true. Good thing Yamaguchi got them access to the computer system. “Footage looped. With any luck they haven't noticed. I've got the comms jammed, so those suits aren't communicating with anyone, unless they have a walkie-talkie with them in those damned things.” Agent Hartnell's in top form tonight, it seems. The smaller of the two mechs is disabled completely by Carol's covering fire of Cap; it falls, battered and torn in places, showing just how much of a prototype the armour was. They must be using it solely for the trainees. The man within, however, seems to be locked inside – something must have damaged the locks to disengage the suit, and he panics, struggling against the metal suit that weighs more than he does. The larger of the two armours takes the brunt of the shield – made from stronger metal, obviously – right in the joint that connects leg to torso. It starts to pivot jerkily towards Cap, putting the entire backside of the power suit towards Ms. Marvel in the process. In a move that Danvers has seen before, the right arm lifts while mini rockets start to activate under the wrist... which promptly die down, once Karla has completely shot through the battery pack on the rear of the suit. (( Command? Hello, command?! Under attack! Repeat, we're... dammit! )) No power, no comms. Not that he knew the comms were disabled already. That huge steel door that Clint has his eyes on does end up opening, just as Brand gets within range. Four guards come out, intent on relieving some of the men out here already it seems. They all seem utterly unaware of what's happened, given the joking and mock-grumbling that goes on between the men. No signals got out. Nobody knows that the remaining guards have been swiftly taken down by a ninja in the shadows. These men are not particularly armoured in any special way, so taking them down would be easy for the archer and the soldier. The panel off to the side of the door is a lot easier for Martin to see given how close he is. Right on top of it. It requires a keycard swipe and a handprint ID, from the looks of things. Captain was high on the smaller armored suit when Carol blasts a whole in it's back and rides the hulk down. Crouched with his fists wrapped in around the shoulder gyros, he rolls off the head side onto his own shoulder, pivots up onto his feet and darts back at the bigger beats of metal. His shield is over there, after all, even if it suddenly has a hole in it's power supply. Steve jumps up onto his shield, wraps his leg around the suits shoulder and slams his fist straight through the viewport and into the man insides face. A nice knuckle sandwich served with a side of comeuppance. Once he's landed from the armors shoulders the shield is yanked free and hurled in the direction of the oncoming replacement guards. Running towards them as it hits the corner of the open doorframe and smashes into the side of one's neck, he leaps up, grabs the shield out of the air, and comes down with it smashing into another. That there's two standing beside him doesn't bother him much, Hawkeye is on overwatch after all. The one hit with the shield stumbles, disoriented, but now held in place by a slap of Steve's hand into his chest with his weapons striped away. Martin wants one alive? Cap hasn't killed anyone, but alive probably means 'able to talk'. For everyone's interrogatory pleasures. At this point, Carol is purely on cover detail. She draws a grenade from her bandolier and loads it into the M203, policing her giant sized 40mm brass and tucking the expended cartridge into a slot on the bandolier. Then she leans out and takes aim, <> she subvocalizes softly, tuning criticisms out. <> Yep, she's basically artillery for Cap's forward observer to call it whenever it may be needed. She's calm... she is one of those people who get calmer when the shit hits the fan. Guards down and bound, armored suits out of commission, Agent Yamaguchi, SHIELD ninja, leaps from the wall to the deck inside in one smooth motion, rolling up to her feet at a sprint that might even keep up with Captain Rogers. Of course, she does it all in black, moving as silently as she can, and staying under cover to avoid notice. Which is why the two remaining, standing guards probably won't have anything to respond to before her flying kick drives into the head of one, and an overhand chop strikes the neck of the other, driving them to the ground. Swift and silent. Stealth is still working on this mission, despite big, bright and star-spangled action. <> There were times when Martin thought that the whole business of being stealthy and a good shot was for when you didn't have superhero serving with you. It was like trying to herd cats. Or actors. <> He subvocalizes, nodding toward Karla as he jogs towards cap, pointing toward the door. <> He grumps for just a moment, his hand moving to pull out a silenced Glock, switching it to semi-automatic and firing two rounds, one to each side of the captured persons head. "10 seconds. I want your keycard and your bare hands exposed or your mother never gets anything to bury." He says. One hand holds the gun, the other hand has a scanner out for when he might expose those hands. Capturing biometrics was important. The second the guards are in view a brace of arrows streaks out towards them. Luckily for them Clint is shooting to disable not kill on this mission but they will be in pain he is using regular hunting tips. <<"I will try to leave some leftovers."> He then adds, Brand jumps right into action. The wonderful thing about energy weapons is that they don't actually make much noise. At least not as much as normal firearms. She steps out and with pinpoint accuracy fires four shots at the incoming relief guards. Anyone who Barton didn't disable, Brand was likely going to kill. She's quite the marksmen herself. After that she holsters the pistols and gets out the C-4 like explosives she had in her belts. No complaints about the super-heroics or Barton going soft on the guys who would likely kill them all just to do it. She walks up to the door and attaches them to the weak points in the walls around the door. She was going to do it anyways and activates the remote for it. She switches her optics to XRF and looks at the door Brand was her code name after all, named for her own little super power. Karla doesn't mess with the door, and backs up a little bit from where Brand starts setting the charges. Then she finds a nice point on the wall to to press her back against. She peers out to locate Danvers and make certain she is alright. For now though, Sofen just waits. She is back to casual, expecting the rest to know their jobs. It's a pretty bad night to be a guard for Sidewinder, isn't it? Hammered on by Cap, Katsuko, Barton, and then Brand. Overkill? Okay, definitely. But they probably deserve it by now. Who knows what Sidewinder's had them do during the length of their employment? “Shit shit shit!” The man stares up at Martin, panic in his eyes. “Fuck! Okay man, okay! Just don't point that fucking thing...!” He fumbles for his security card, tossing it out at Martin, then quickly bearing both hands. At least he's nice and cooperative, right? Between the card and the offered hand, the door will open quite easily. On the other side? It's a standard mine tunnel, well-lit by 150-watt light bulbs every 25 feet. There doesn't seem to be any cameras, and the tunnel leads straight down, deeper into the mountain. Eventually noise can be heard, and the tunnel leads to a wide open room which seems to be part laboratory and partly metal refinery. People in lab coats bustle about while notepads or electronic devices of all kinds – it should be noted they're all wearing electronic monitoring devices. In the centre of the room is a big, red portal, currently showing activity in another, similar lab. Several men are clustered around this portal, taking notes on what they see happening on the other side. They mumble between themselves, a lot of scientific jargon. Some of it doesn't sound particularly real. In a windowed area to the east a control room can be seen, with two men at computers and another pacing behind them. Below that, a path leads deeper. Tracks can be seen, and an abandoned mine cart lies overturned to one side. That must be where they've started mining. Steve slides his shield up onto his back and walks over to Martin as the man jogs his way, "Yeah, I've seen a silencer." Because he thinks it was a real question or at the very least, doesn't gauge the sarcasm quite as effectively as he should. When the weapon snap hisses to either side of the downed guards head, Cap raises an eyebrow. "I seem to remember we used them a little differently, though." That he's mildly uncomfortable with the intimidation tactics is well hidden behind the cowl, but his body language and tone says everything. Nothing about Captain America is really stealthy. When the doors slide open onto a lab, rather than an army of armoured troops, Steve just perks a brow and glances to either side as he steps through with his shield once again on his arm. His hand closes around the pistol on his hip, whips free, and snaps off a shot in the direction of something that mildly reminds him of 'explosive' near the portal. He misses, but that might well be intentional, "The next shot won't miss. Everyone get down on the ground and hand us your keycards." He even twisted on a silencer. Glancing back at Martin, wiggling his pistol as it points out over at the barrels marked with ubiquitous skull and cross bones and mouths, 'Learning'. Stealth and speed. The poor relieve guards certainly had a bad day. Agent Yamaguchi swiftly disappears down the mine shaft head of the rest of the team, scouting ahead. That's what she's for, after all. She radios back what she has spotted, giving everyone a chance to act accordingly. When they are ready to take action? That's when she leaps into motion, tossing a device at the windowed glass that slaps into place and shatters the glass with subsonic vibrations. The black-clad SHIELD ninja dives in right behind the shattered glass, and sets to on those inside, aiming to neutralize as quickly and efficiently as possible. Well, so much for artillery. It's not long before Carol has her weapon slung and she makes her way forward. On her way in.. she heard some of the comms, but she is holding one of the 40mm grenades in her hand. "Hey Cap. You know anywhere I can put this to use?" she asks as she tosses the grenade his way. Sure, it's not armed, primed or whatnot. But it's purely to enhance his intimidation. Martin looks to the man for a moment, scans the hand itself, before forcing him to place it aganist the door. <> He moves to holster the weapon at his thigh, before reaching around his back. "You're an American guarding a facility in Russia with power armor. What the fuck did you expect? That this would be easy?" He notes, before firing the weapon into the man's head. The tell-tale denratoxins of an ICER are easy to see, however, as he reholsters his weapon, and looks over to Cap. "Sure you did. Times have changed, though. I'd say people have, too, but that I'm not so sure on." He says, before continuinng down the tunnel itself. And then there's no stealth to here, either. Lord, they couldn't spend time actually sneaking around? He doesn't add anything verbally, though. Captain America was recognizable, and the best thing he could do here was enchance the intimidation factor. <> Clint walks in after everyne else, <"I got drag. Will keep the door out open. If you need an arrow up there let me know."> After all not like he needs much of a view of a target to hit it. He splits it attention between glancing back the way they came and up towards the front just in case he is needed. Agent Brand switches her optics to infra-red now. If there were laser trip wires or anything like that she'd be able to see them. To what Martin said though she frowned She then planted the next set of explosives, set to radio detonator #3. Yeah Brand has a bunch of detonators on her. Girl is prepared that's for sure. RD1 is for the mines. RD2 is for the outer door. RD3 is for the inner door. She really couldn't wait until she got to set these off. She was a big fan of explosions. She pinches the bridge of her noise at the Captain's display. Yes, she respected Captain America. But in her opinion he needed a real reality check. But then again she thought that of half the SHIELD agents she'd met. She pulled out her plasma pistol from its holster but kept it frosty for now. If Cap's ploy didn't work, she'd do it her way. Karla walks in at the back of the group, takes a glance at the mine cart and holds up, going over to examine it. Then she picks it up and takes it with her, lifting it over her head and holding it much in the fashion of a bonnet to keep the center of gravity well placed. As a fashion statement it is pretty lousy, likely a great umbrella though. Still a sturdy made iron cart has all kinds of uses. "Okay Clint, just don't let it close." she says to him, not bothering to use the radio, since right there. After that she heads with her new toy down to the science room to rejoin the main body of the team. Almost instantly, the scientists are all tossing out their ID badges and security cards. Oh, they recognize Captain America at the very least. Some even know of the SHIELD uniforms. Maybe some were even expecting this, knowing full well the boss was working against the organization. They all put their hands up. Brand has those mines and things ready to go. If she has anything on her devices to let her know when to set something off, she'll get an alert: something big is parked over the mines she set up near the front gate. The glass shatters thanks to Katsuko at a horribly inopportune moment – someone comes up from the tunnel holding one of the mine carts between both hands. He's easily a good two feet taller than Cap, his skin grey and leathery. Mouth elongated into a snout, complete with flat teeth and a bony, sharp protrusion. “All right chumps, I've got another load here for yo.... what the hell is this?!” He tosses the mine cart to the side like it weighed nothing. “Who the hell are you?” He barks an order back down the tunnel, which quickly echoes with the sounds of boots pounding on the ground. Did we mention Sidewinder might be working on genetic experimentation on the side? The tossed grenade from Carol is caught in his left hand, twisted into a 'ready' and hot-potato tosses it side armed at the bohemouth. Team work. The gun swivels in his direction and fires at the twirling projectile, putting a bullet straight through the casing. "Fire for effect, Colonel." Said to the Danvers as brings his shield up to eat the shockwave rolling back off that explosion. "Karla. You're up." mutters Carol as she quickdraws her Plasma pistol and goes to a two handed, legs spread firing stance -very- fast, firing a quick doubletap at the musclebound goon before she dives away to open up a path for ... Ms. Marvel. She snickers internally as she thinks that, and ends up rolling to one knee to aim and give cover fire while chuckling softly. Once the personnel inside the room are neutralized, Yamaguchi pulls out another of those digital controllers, plugging it into the computers and then attaching another of her small explosive packs. << Done. Do you want help dealing with that thing? >> she inquires of Martin. She's willing. Or she could go running down the tunnel. She just waits for orders. << Hartnell, you're online with the internal systems. Go. >> One of these days, Martin theorized, he was going to meet one of those 'wizards' the tabloids kept talking about, and asking them what infernal magic the earth was cursed with that made all the important ops had unforseen complications. Martin reaches to the end of his rifle, calmly removing large silencer from the end of it, and removing the clip from the rifle, replacing it with one that had orange and red stripped tape. A quick pull of the charging handle to free the unaugmented round from the chamber, and his weapon is up shortly after Cap fires his weapon at the grenade, filling the corridor in that rough position with explosive ammunition meant to piece vehicles and much up engine blocks. <> He whistles at the scientists on the ground. "You folks! Time to leave! Get up, and start running! When you get outside, you get on the ground, and you lay down, or else you get a round through the skull!" When it doubt, mention snipers. <> he adds, <> h thne heads to the door out he gets and explosive tipped arrow ready to make sure that anything big that ges past the mines will have another nasty surprise. "Damn, he looks like the guy my dad tried to set me up with when I was sixteen" Brand had an.. interesting family tree. When the detonator one's proximity went off, Brand reached down and hit the button. She was slightly sad she didn't get to see it explode, but those are the breaks she says in the sub-vocal. she sent over to Maria Hill. Yeah this was going just as bad as . She should have known. After that she reached for a grenade on her utility belt, it looked normal but it was basically... napalm plasma. Brand was about to enact total Scorched Earth policy on this place. See, lots of uses for a big iron cart. That guy had one, but he dropped his. Karla tosses hers at him like a game of medicine ball. "I am Ms. Marvel." She says as the thing hurtles at the large man, who likely might not have know he was playing catch at the moment. "And you are under arrest." Her tone almost sing song and kind of Sailor Moon. The it is up off the ground to wait to see how much more the giant can take. CLANG! He certainly wasn't expecting that, and though he catches the mine cart, the sheer force makes him stumble backwards and partially slump against the wall. The goons he summoned by bellowing show up moments later, each one of them some poor experiment in combining human and animal DNA. Some poor sap with tusks and outdated clothing. A crocodile man. A man covered in feathers, a woman looking part rodent. They very possibly could be considered mutants, but given how piecemeal they all look, none of this is particular natural. Carol's shots miss the big horned man as he falls, but they do collide with the bird-man, dropping him quite easily. He, like the others, is not particularly well-armoured. It doesn't help that their bodies are a little too awkward to dress beyond awkward-fitting pants and shirts. Mostly torn up. “Hill here. You're about fifteen seconds too late, Brand!” Surprise, surprise. Hill was piloting the Quinjet. That probably shows just how personal this whole Sidewinder situation is getting for her. Over her commline comes the noise of Maria firing her plasma weapon twice, and then bodies dropping. “I've been a little busy!” She was paying attention to communications before that, but then people showed up. “Quinjet will be in the air in ten seconds and at the front gates in 30. I hope you got everything down there!” Right on cue, the Quinjet's engine roars to life over the comms. Hartnell briefly comes back onto the comm. “Confirmed Agent Yamaguchi. Downloading now.” The scientists all wisely do as Martin suggests and take off running for the exit, providing a bit of a distraction for the soldiers that try to come down the tunnel, only to run into them. Not a lot of men, only a dozen. Surely nothing Clint can't handle, right? << Someone grab the idiots I bound in that room, or they'll die without fetching up their intel. >> Damn waste, that. Yamaguchi radios in, diving back out the missing window space and then tucking herself against the wall, scampering around largely unseen until she can get past those pouring up the mine shaft behind the big cart-juggling behemoth. She doesn't have long, and she has more intel to find before it's all over. << Pull out without me if you get clear. I'll make my own way out if necessary. >> She won't be responsible for the team hanging around in danger, just for her and her intel. Thirty seconds is a lot longer in 'battle time', so much can happen in half a minute. Steve brings his shield up and runs at the mutants and leaps right into the midst of them, particularly that tough one that took a mine car and kept on ticking. The behemouth swings on the First Avenger who isn't there when the fist connects with tracks and catches a shield across the face for his trouble. Cap turns and straight kicks the crocodile man back away from him when he rushes up trying to get his oversized mawl around Steve's muted armor. The foot snaps backwards into a hyenna girl and shoves her away as well. The biggest of them swings at Cap again, scoring him along the shoulder, though his shield absorbs most of the impact. It's still enough to throw him against the wall and he's still enough of his senses to hurl his shield at the guys forehead which rebounds off and painfully jerks his head backwards in the process. Steve side flips over another punch, catches his shield and lands with it up over his shoulder to catch another punch which still hurts like hell. <> Steve spins out of his crouch, swinging the shield around into two mutants faces. <<-ut of here.>> Martin doesn't waste much time after he fires, moving off to the side and vaulting over the glass to the control room, snapping out a knife and quickly cutting their bonds. "Start running." He says to them, before going back over the glass, to the defensive line, firing his rifle again, before tossing a grenade of his own down the tunnel itself. Luckily, just a flashbang down that corridor. Not an explosive, as they did have someone down there still. And leaving her to die in a cascade of falling mountain would be bad on /so/ many levels. <> Clint smiles, "All right time to party." he grins and arrows start to fly, first the explosive time gets sent into the middle of the group as Clint hopes to send them toppling like ten pins then those that are still conscious start to feel more arrow-y wrath as taser arrows, blunt tips even the old classics like net and putty get used to keep the soliders off the back of is friends and the way out clear. He then summersaults into the fray ready to finish off any that still have fight in them hand to hand. Brand shouts, She doesn't wait for Hill's response she primes the grenade in her hand and throws it at the horned man.. It explodes seconds later spreading a green fire all around. She grabs another grenade and charges in and says over the subvocal Brand has no intention of dying tonight, but she'll be damned if the op is going to fail... for any reason. Time to withdraw, and so far, Karla has seen once peice of tech these people have that she would actually deem valuable. Well, there is the large suit outside, but Cap can grab that. Karla picks a different thing to steal, umm liberate. She points her right hand to the base of the portal generator and cuts the power and connection cords. Maybe it is who she is, but there is actually an odd look at the mutants that might be pity, it is really short lived, but Karla actually thought the things might have needed rescue. She even speaks up, though she started the fight with the big one. "You know, back in the day.. When I had other employeers, those guys might have been victums. Just saying. They never attacked us. None of these people did." she states as she hefts up the whole portal generator and makes for the exit. Maria did say to get the goodies. Maria Hill manages to keep in the amusement – Brand's freaking out while everyone else maintains a reasonable level of calm. Even Karla's being more calm. Or she assumes so, since she's not hearing the blonde over the comms. “Quinjet in place.” This is followed by a few more plasma weapon shots. “Get your asses out here already.” She carries on as if Brand didn't just attempt to hijack the op. Two more bodies fall, and then the shots stop. “Surface is clear.” For the moment, until Sidewinder wonders why the site is still dark and sends another investigative group. Thankfully, with their transporter facility down, it'll be the long way – driving. No shortcuts for them tonight. To anyone fighting their way through the mutated humans, one thing becomes very clear: they were never trained to fight. Oh, sure. They're big and ugly and kind of intimidating, but that's it. No training. No skills. They're strong, and they don't even use that strength all that effectively – especially when one is dealing with trained SHIELD agents and superheroes. They hit the ground like poorly made nuns' clothing. The few soldiers left in the tunnel end up dropping under Clint's barrage of arrows. Like the men tat were stationed outside, they didn't really wear any body armour, so nothing they had could defend them against the missiles. "C'mon, move it people!" She's relieved (though she won't admit it) when Karla shows up lugging a bit of tech. She helps get it in place, then studies the blonde. "Everyone's just behind you, right?" Steve catches on pretty quick that these guys aren't really golden gloves fighters, much less super villain material. They just suffer from a terrible case of the ugly appearances, which is a shame because he usually doesn't get into the hating on someone for their looks business. Guilty by association will have to be his justification in this regard, with the exclusion of the one who shouted at them. He's getting his face ruined. Cap springs back over his palm and leaps forward swinging his shield in a mighty backhand that knocks the hulking monster of an ox out of the way and against a wall, then lands in a crouch and glares down the remaining mutants. "Go." Thumbing over his shoulder. No sense letting them stay down here and die. Neither will he leave Katsuko. <> Only once he sees and/or hears that she's already ninja'd past him will he turn and run, keeping his cool, eyeing Agent Brand as he jumps up into the Quinjet. "What happened to 'No heroics'?" His tone never managing to sound cold, just... uncertain. Agent Yamaguchi follows her original orders, sprinting down the shaft behind the backs of the mutated folks. When called, so long as her comms signal holds out, she responds. << Nothing so far but more mine. Tracks in multiple directions. Get going, Rogers. Don't wait for me. >> Of course, Martin, Brand and Hill have all given other orders at this point, which is all kinds of confusing. The ninja's solution to all of this? She keeps exploring, indulging in some truly metahuman speed, searching down each line a good way until she's sure there's nothing more interesting down any of those lines. And if that means she's still down here when the explosives go off? Well, she'll just have to find her own way out, just as she told everyone she would. (Remember: she is but a single ninja in the scene, and the law of Conservation of Ninjitsu clearly states that in such event, she will be nigh-invincible.) Martin is quickly on the comms as Brand makes her case. <> Martin's heading back as well, along with Carol, Karla, Steve and the rest. He does tend to take up the rear, though. Like he said, he was slow. <> He'll reach the outside of the doors at a walk, moving to leap up to the ramp. "One more, boss! She's heading out now!" She'd /better/ be. Clint Barton heads out after Karla and he looks around wating for the others to come, <> he starts to walks over othe quinject but does not get in. he is nto goignot leave anyone behind not even Brand. he looks to the skys searching out any incoming object trucsting his eyes mroe then radar. Agent Brand is in fact, not on her way out. And Agent Brand is not in fact 'freaking out' She is in fact completing the mission as best she can with the shitty intel and the shitty op. She would have a very... colorful AAR for Maria Hill after this was all over. On her sub-vocal she said, SHIELD uniforms were insulated but only to a point. Brand looked at Captain America of all people and smirked, "No heroics, I just know I can do the job." She then disappeared into the darkness of it all, she was Agent Brand, SHIELD's worst problem and one of their best agents. She'd get it done, and she'd make sure it all burned and she'd get the intel that SHIELD needed. That Maria needed. Brand knew what she was doing was impulsive and was violating at least twelve regulations. Well she promised Clint that the op they worked together would do so. Now she just needed to make good on explosions. Karla pauses long enough at Clint to make sure he hears her say, "Do not kill the people running for their lives.." Then she steps out the door and flies the portal generator over to the jet's cargo hold. After that she turns about and zooms over to the power suit she finished off, grabbing it and the helpless soldier inside and him carrying over to load in one hand. She even stops to grab grab the geekiest looking of the techs with her free hand. Karla is like that. 3 hours? What the hell does Brand think she's doing down there, exactly? “I think you're forgetting how this works, Brand. Down on this rock, I give the orders. You can be hot shit up in space.” Because Hill would never go up there if she could help it. The op might have had shity intel, but it couldn't be helped. Not a lot of ways to observe a facility that is mostly underground, and mostly a mine and a lab. “Yamaguchi, back. Doubletime. Hartnell has it all.” Judging by the signal she just received. “Blow up their computers so they lose their databases. We've got it all.” She counts everyone coming in, one by one. Mentally of course, because right now she has adopted Maria Hill Look #1. Annoyance. Surprise surprise, Brand is still back there, she really wasn't just saying that to piss her off. “Yamaguchi, get to the Quinjet. Brand wants to be an idiot, leave her behind.” Normally Maria isn't really one for leaving someone behind. Brand? She'll make a special point of leaving her behind for being an idiot. <> Steve starts in a voice that is entirely too calm for the words coming out of his mouth, <> He stands at the hatch of the Quinjet watching the open doorway, expectantly waiting for Katsuki to come running out at any moment. Two fingers hold down the transceiever, eyes cast backwards towards the cockpit, <> << Roger, Hill. Blowing relays, on way back. >> Yamaguchi sends back, as she sprints full tilt up the passage from the mine. She sets off the explosive charges she set on the relays, taking them out to scrap and shredding the computers they were attached to, hopefully making the mess Maria demands. When Yamaguchi's nightsuited form appears, she is quite literally trucking, as she is moving at vehicle highway speeds, her body blurring in the darkness into mostly a streak. (Hey, the boss said doubletime, she's just following orders!) When she gets close, she leaps for the opening in the quinjet and rolls, bleeding off excess momentum on her way towards the front, and then stops. << Aboard, Ma'am. Should we detonate the fallback explosives? >> She hasn't even uncurled from her spot on the floor at the absolute forward of the rear compartment, and she's already checking in like a good little agent.. Go figure. Martin manages to look down at the ninja who rolls over the deck toward him, nodding slightly. "Good hustle." He says, before turning to Cap, and speaking out loud. "She's committed. That's not going to change her mind. Someone like her is not going to turn around just because you're saying she's breaking the rules. She's going to either get herself killed, or get results. And what she has to understand is that the former has a hell of a lot more of a chance happening to the later." He walks over to the back of the craft, closering to the cockpit, transmitting. <> He pokes his head in, taking a look at the screen that has sensor data on it, before looking back to Hill. "Writing's on the wall. Extraction's our best bet, and losing a Quinjet full of assets is worth more than her. You're assuming she's getting out of this alive." He says, more of a statement. Clint smiles to Karla, and says to her, "I have not killed anyone on this op, I do my best to avoid that sort of thing." And well the people running for their lives he pretty much lets run. He walks over to the Quinjet. He then gets in the quinjet. Brand was convinced that it was what she was supposed to do. But after a moment, she realized the truth. She'd die here. And honestly, she didn't want to die here. So She ran to the current extraction. As she passed the first point, she hit one of her detonators with a smile, as she passed by the outer door she hit the other detonator. And that one went off. Maria Hill wanted destruction, and she was going to give it to her. As she ran out off the base she pulled out a magnetic grapple and shot it at the Quinjet. Perfect shot and she got pulled up by it and pulled herself into the Quinjet. After a second to catch her breathe she looked up at Captain America and did a bit of a salute, "No Heroics. I told you all I'd shoot the first person who went heroic on this mission. I'd shoot myself but I'd been cheating SHIELD out of my assets." She smirked as she took off her sunglasses, the people on this op would finally see her green eyebrows and her green eyes, and a cute little beauty mole just a bit under her right side, "Even I can't accomplish everything alone. Much to my unhappiness." Karla is really ready to get out of here. And when she listens to the exchange of chatters she is once again reminded of the good old days. She looks to the cockpit, then out the back and shakes her head. Yepp, good'ole days, they would have just marked Brand off. She gets out of her seat briefly to seek about for a pillow, the comfy chairs are no doubt up front. She takes a moment to explain to the geek she chose that is he needs to tries to escape it will be bad. Oh good, Brand is on her way, and then on the jet. She plops back down in her chair and buckles up for the ride home. "I might make it home in time to hget to bed after all. Welcome back, Agent Brand." Nap time. Hill could comment. But she's too busy putting the Quinjet into the air as high as it'll go. No need for them to be able to track her. “Set off the explosives.” Assuming they've not been yet. She circles the area once before hitting the right direction and heading off. Shitty intel and shitty op, maybe. But objective complete and they have more intel on Sidewinder now. “Time to go home.” Category:Log